The recently-conducted school counsellors’ training, which was hosted at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of PNG’s Ampo headquarters, was appreciated by teachers who attended the weeklong training.
Twenty teachers in Morobe Province now have the skills to spot the signs of alcohol and drug abuse, and find the best way to treat and monitor the concerned students.
During the weeklong training, Men of Honour program manager, Stanley Bakere, emphasised on confidentiality and the need to establish trust with the student.
“The training is very informative,” said Busu Secondary School’s head of guidance and counselling, Ms Kulawi Buni. “It has taught us a lot of insights.
“For myself, I’m not a trained counsellor. I do career guidance. That means, I just check the students on their marks and all these. But after learning this, I know I can approach – using these skills – to help the students better in terms of counselling.”
Ms Buni, who has been the guidance and counselling HOD since 2018, alluded to the issue of alcohol and drug abuse in the community, saying the training has helped them to find better ways to approach the situation using a set of questioning techniques.
From there, they can determine whether that is the only issue, or if there are other underlying factors that are pushing the student to resort to alcohol and drug abuse.
“Every parent that sends a child to school comes from a different family background, a different culture, and we need to know more about the approaches that we take so we can be able to handle it in a proper way,” added Busu’s head of language and literature, David Sause. “This is so that we are able to develop this child to become a good citizen of our nation.
“So, it is very important for every teacher to be part of this training.”